Water

Suffering severe drought, the state’s water board is poised to prevent thousands of growers and others from pumping water from the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers. The state lost a lawsuit with irrigation districts during the last drought.

It’s California's first big step toward regulating “forever chemicals,” which are ubiquitous in California and around the globe. The proposed goals — which aim to make the cancer risk negligible — are many times lower than federal guidelines for drinking water.

As drought grips most of California, water thefts have increased to record levels. Thieves tap into hydrants, pump water from rivers and break into remote water stations and tanks.

Extreme drought now grips 85% of California so the governor is seeking voluntary action. Newsom expanded the drought emergency to nine more counties, mostly along the Central Coast and in the Bay Area.

A rural Central Valley community is without running water during a heat wave, prompting authorities to haul in bottles and jugs of water to more than 700 people in Teviston.

Drought resilience depends on location but also extraordinary engineering — determining which California places are running out of water this year and which remain in good shape.

About 4,300 users were issued notices to halt diversions from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Some growers and municipalities will have to rely on other sources, while many can invoke their senior water rights to keep pumping from the rivers — at least for now.

In the rural towns around Visalia, today’s dry spell is indistinguishable from the last one or the next one. Drought is a perpetual plight in the region, which is a hotspot for dry wells.

With most of the state gripped by extreme dryness, some conditions are better, some worse, than the last record-breaking drought. Over-pumping of wells hasn’t stopped. But urban residents haven’t lapsed back into water-wasting lifestyles.

The Legislative Analyst’s Office warns California lawmakers to prepare to dispatch emergency drinking water to vulnerable communities, particularly in the Central Valley.